One of the books that I ordered last week, "The DVX Book" by Barry W. Green came in. I've been wanting pretty badly to dig into it. I just haven't had the time.. I really need to devote more time to writing.. I was flipping through it though, and it looks pretty detailed. It also comes with a DVD with lots of examples and tutorials for the camera.

James Tauber turned me on to John August's blog which contains "tons of useful information on screenwriting". I've been going through it, and it does have a lot decent information and advice. I'd recommend it. It was interesting that in one section he talked about how early in his career, he'd try to save scenes that he liked at all cost and was reluctant to cut them. I pointed out in an earlier post that I'd learned from Mitch that you need to be able to toss stuff it doesn't work no matter how great you thought it was. There was a time when I'd cling to scenes, pages or dialog, but now I just toss it if its not working.

I went to see Steven Spielberg's "Munich" last night and was once again reminded why he's such a genius and will always be one of my favorite all time directors. There was a time that I recall that he seemed to be in a rut with his films in that that (to me at least) they all had a very familiar "feel" to them. His capacity to break from his style and re-invent himself is something that to me underscores his brilliance. I felt that with Munich, he once again excelled at not only telling an incredible story, but making it visually intense and convincing where it needed to be. He also did what he seems to have an innate ability to do which is put you in the head of the characters and establish that emotional connection to them. His ability to extract an absolutely convincing and compelling performance from even the smallest supporting members of the cast never ceases to amaze me.

That said.. I can't say that I've been that blown away by every single one of his efforts. War of the Worlds had its moments, and was visually amazing, action packed and well acted and produced as all his films are. Overall, I guess I was expecting a more interesting treatment of the story. I found some of the plot devices unconvincing. I still like the original better.

Enough of the critics corner.. :)

Working on Heist tonight... I have lots of stuff I've been wanting to incorporate. I'm trying to top 50 pages by the end of the weekend.

Completed another edit of my new reality concept trailer, which I think came out pretty good. This new cut was done on Final Cut Pro. I exported the edit decision list (known as an EDL) from Vegas, and that served as a guide for the new cut. We kept the basic flow, beginning and ending points, but extended it to about 1:44. It was previously about 1:10. The new footage that we worked in really helped to demonstrate what the episodes might look like. I hope that it can be sold soon, it would be a nice way to finance some of Heist. :)